At this point, "Steve Jobs would never stand for this" announcements by Apple are becoming old hat. There was the introduction of the iPad Mini after Jobs said the company would never enter that small tablet space. There was iPhone 5c, the previous generation of phone tech dressed up in fancy colors. And today, the new $1099 21.5-inch iMac.

How did Cupertino drop the price? The most glaring weakness of the less expensive iMac is processing speed. Apple has been selling $1299 and $1499 versions of its current generation of all-in-one desktop computer featuring 2.7GHz and 2.9 GHz, respectively. The $1099 version that goes on sale today brings just 1.4GHz with its dual-core Intel i5. Apple promises Turbo Boost up to 2.7 GHz when the machine is under duress to make up some of that difference. Still, it's a huge performance gap.

I'm all for Apple shedding the Jobs-era attitude of perfection or nothing, whatever the cost. In its press release, the company calls the $1099 iMac "the perfect entry-level Mac desktop." But the performance drop-off compared to the $1299 version seems like it's worth more than 200 bucks. Apple might think $1099 is "entry-level," but it's still a steep chunk of change for lots of people. And frankly, if you can afford to spend $1099 on a new machine, you can afford to spend $1299 on a good one. With plenty of more powerful PCs available around the price point of the cheap iMac, the company must be counting on brand loyalty or Apple lust bringing in customers who just want the cheapest iDevice they can get.